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NEMO | When we started feeding with bale beds several years ago and we would only unroll the daily allotment of hay for each group, you learn pretty quickly that cattle love to lay down on something. Young calves are the quickest to find a place to settle in on the fresh hay. You also see first hand which hay bales the cattle like to eat and which ones they do not eat.
I can't imagine not offering livestock something to lay on in weather like what we are having now: 8 to 10 inches of wet snow, temperatures dropping to zero with negative wind chills. It's brutal out there.
What takes less energy and feed: standing in snow/mud all day or laying on straw/junk hay/leftover hay?
If you were outside 24/7 would you want something to lay or sit on?
With the hay shortage, we went to trying to feed every hay bale in a hay ring and not unroll any of the hay. We have been unrolling straw bales for bedding whenever conditions warranted it. This week has called for a lot of bedding! | |
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Bedding Cows During Winter?
